The cloud is no longer an abstract concept, with more businesses than ever utilising it for storage, applications or even server hosting. For years, myths around the cloud have been dogged, and have dissuaded many businesses from making the move. Concerns around security, cost and downtime persist, but many have proven to be nothing more than unfounded fears.

Cloud hosting is more sophisticated than ever; Microsoft leading the way with its hybrid Office 365 offering, cloud-only Business Management System (BMS) Dynamics 365 and world-leading Azure platform. Whilst it’s true that the security of cloud services wasn’t as robust a few years ago, the market leaders have invested heavily in protecting their remote datacentres; according to Gartner, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) hosted in the cloud will be more secure than most enterprise datacentres by 2020.

Thanks to these significant investments by cloud providers, downtime is also less likely, with backup datacentres, power and servers in place that the ordinary business couldn’t afford on its in-house servers. And thanks to the huge shift in pricing models, cloud services are now available via subscriptions, substantially lowering the upfront CapEx required. Installation times are reduced, and therefore so is the overall cost to the business.

This infographic from IT support providers TSG highlights some of the key benefits of utilising the cloud, as well as demystifying the jargon around it including public, private and hybrid, and all of the business areas that you could utilise the cloud.